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Lexicon posted:You've missed the point entirely - which is perfectly ok, because that's why this thread exists Yeah, I did a bit more reading after my post and realized the error in thinking. Now that I look at it, would it make sense to try to get rid of my RRSP all-together, and migrate it into my TFSA? Basically come retirement time for me, I think the RRSP will actually be hurting me by 'clawing-back' into my GIS. Apparently I would be taxed 10% on a 5,000 withdrawal (still leaving the $4,500 to be taxed of course), but I could chip away at the RRSP I have.
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# ? Nov 4, 2013 18:58 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 18:28 |
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Kal Torak posted:This is not true. You are required to advise CRA of your marital status change by the end of the month following the month of the status change. From a practical point it is only strictly necessary if you are receiving some sort of benefit from the government that would be reduced by you getting married. It's a short list of things. Even if you forgot, you'd just get a bill for the difference to recover the overpayments (which would suck, admittedly). If you are a young dude/lady who just got married, is making an income and have no special payments coming to you from any government body, it is fine to just check the box on your next tax return. That is exactly what I did, worked out fine. Thanks for pointing it out though - it's obviously the "by the book" thing to do. Kashwashwa posted:Yeah, I did a bit more reading after my post and realized the error in thinking. This would depend on what you earn now, and how much you have in your RRSP. Saltin fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Nov 4, 2013 |
# ? Nov 4, 2013 19:45 |
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Withdrawing 5k would still leave me in the same (25%) tax bracket of the province I live in. I have 35k in an RRSP.
Kashwashwa fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Nov 4, 2013 |
# ? Nov 4, 2013 20:04 |
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Saltin posted:From a practical point it is only strictly necessary if you are receiving some sort of benefit from the government that would be reduced by you getting married. It's a short list of things. Even if you forgot, you'd just get a bill for the difference to recover the overpayments (which would suck, admittedly). Yes, if you do wait and just tell them when you file your return, it won't hurt you though some benefits may need to be repaid such as the GST credit. I have never seen anyone penalized for doing it this way. However, it is REQUIRED by the CRA by the end of the month after the month of the status change so you may as well just do it since all it takes is a phone call.
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# ? Nov 4, 2013 20:25 |
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Also the TFSA. I am a huge fan and think people need to more understand what they are. So I checked with my RBCDS adviser about buying the ETFs in my non-reg account. Needless to say, I'm not very impressed. I though it was something like $50 transaction to buy, boy was I wrong. It's like 2%. gently caress. That. Non-registered account with discount broker, here I come.
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# ? Nov 4, 2013 20:51 |
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slidebite posted:So I checked with my RBCDS adviser about buying the ETFs in my non-reg account. Needless to say, I'm not very impressed. I though it was something like $50 transaction to buy, boy was I wrong. It's like 2%. How is that even possible? Can you elaborate
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# ? Nov 4, 2013 21:27 |
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So, basically the registered accounts and TFSA all have plans with RBCDS which, for all intents and purposes are low/no fees and to be honest, I am happy with their service for those accounts. Story changes with a non-reg cash account. In effort to keep some things private, we're not talking about tiny amounts of money here (for me at least) so the %s involved are significant, in my opinion at least. I'll do a bit of copy/pasting of my email thread with minimal edits to protect identities and some info. In order of discussion: slidebite posted:I am leaning against the A+ proposal, however I am quite interested in doing a purchase of one or two ETFs in our non-reg account. RBCDS dude posted:The Ishares (and companies that provide the direct etf like them) trade just like stocks...so in a regular transaction account outside of the fee based option you would pay just as if you bought a stock.. the cost depends on the amount purchased but you are looking at about $125 min for up to about a $5000 purchase.... Mutual funds etf through a fund company are just like mutual funds...Low load or front end load...low load costs you nothing up front but you have to stay in the fund usually for a 3 year period or face a penalty. The other option is to buy them on a front end load where you pay 1% of the total upfront and then you can move the money from the fund company anytime you want without penalty. slidebite posted:Thinking of a vanguard etf. Maybe $XX or so. Idea of the fees for something like that? RBCDS posted:Morning slidebite slidebite posted:Basically $xx just to do a buy? That's ridiculous. Can't do it, Sorry. RBCDS posted:Yes that doesn't surprise me... its costly to do a purchase like that in a transaction based account...that's why I use the managed accounts for most stock purchases. An advisor managed account would cost you 2% per year and you can trade approx 20-30 times /year with no other cost. You can also write off the cost. slidebite posted:thanks for the quick reply. Hope you had a good weekend.
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# ? Nov 4, 2013 21:44 |
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Wow. That's nuts. So what exactly is RBC Dominion Securities? A managed analogue to RBC Direct Investing?
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# ? Nov 4, 2013 22:05 |
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RBC Dominion Securities is the investment bank of RBC. Just like RBC, they are penny pinching and suck unless you're high wealth. I ditched them for MD Financial a long time ago.
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# ? Nov 4, 2013 22:21 |
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Lexicon posted:Wow. That's nuts. I didn't even know they had a direct investing division But yes, they are a managed investment division of RBC. That said, I might just go to their direct investing side for this acct. $9.95 flat is reasonable enough, and it might make it simpler. cowofwar posted:RBC Dominion Securities is the investment bank of RBC. Just like RBC, they are penny pinching and suck unless you're high wealth.
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# ? Nov 5, 2013 01:34 |
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Anyone here have an opinion of Desjardins' investment division? All my stuff (Except insurance) is with them, I really need to take a good hard look at what I'm doing, but I figured I'd ask if anyone already knew anything about them.
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# ? Nov 5, 2013 02:00 |
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As I've long claimed, the financial services industry is largely predicated on consumer ignorance.
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# ? Nov 5, 2013 02:50 |
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slidebite posted:I didn't even know they had a direct investing division
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# ? Nov 5, 2013 03:25 |
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Lexicon posted:As I've long claimed, the financial services industry is largely predicated on consumer ignorance. So, assuming I'm OK with self directing and OK with $10/trade, is there any real difference between the discount houses for someone that will only do a handful of trades a year? I did mention a few pages ago that Questrade was pretty incompetent in my experience so I don't want to go back... I know TD-W has been mentioned here too.
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# ? Nov 5, 2013 17:14 |
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slidebite posted:True enough. Of course I'm aware of discount brokerages, just didn't know (or remember) RBC had one. Makes sense they would though since other competing institutions do. If you have other banking at RBC, you might as well keep it all in the same place if the prices/service etc are the same. I'm slowly migrating my investment stuff to BMO away from Questrade for pretty much this reason. I admire what Questrade is doing - I just hate using their website, and their service can be a bit shoddy. They are likely unbeatable if you are doing lots of trading though (don't do this).
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# ? Nov 5, 2013 17:26 |
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slidebite posted:True enough. Of course I'm aware of discount brokerages, just didn't know (or remember) RBC had one. Makes sense they would though since other competing institutions do. Questrade has made significant strides in the last couple years. Customer service is way better and they are actually becoming pretty innovative with some of their research tools. The platform still needs some work but it's not bad. I think they are great for the average buy and hold investor.
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# ? Nov 5, 2013 17:52 |
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I have been using TD Waterhouse for over a decade and they are pretty much perfect for me. I do use TD Canada Trust for my regular banking accounts and mortgage. It is a few clicks to move money from any of my accounts to another, and the web interface is generally solid and even slick since the latest updates. One of the things I really like about it is that it quickly shows me my net worth by giving me a consolidated view of my finances. It is fun to watch it go up.
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# ? Nov 5, 2013 17:56 |
So I let mint.com know that questrade wasn't updating properly for me and they fixed the problem and sent me an email letting me know! Cool, thanks, mint!
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# ? Nov 6, 2013 02:44 |
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This presentation is a bit tech-specific (was given at Twitter) and obviously is sub-optimal without the accompanying talk, but I think it's well worth the time of most people in this thread to spend ten minutes in perusal (especially anyone who finds all this stuff overwhelming): http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/adamnash/personal-finance-for-engineers-twitter-2013 Note the recurring themes from this thread: recency bias in real estate, benefit of low-cost index funds, general inability of people to outperform market, etc….
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# ? Nov 6, 2013 23:03 |
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There is no Australian investing thread, is there? I don't have the search function. There are Australian forums and I'm starting to poke around.. but I'm a long time member of the SA community and I like how we discuss stuff.
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# ? Nov 6, 2013 23:26 |
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Tony Montana posted:There is no Australian investing thread, is there? I don't have the search function. There are Australian forums and I'm starting to poke around.. but I'm a long time member of the SA community and I like how we discuss stuff. Not that I'm aware of, fellow colonial. Why not start one?
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# ? Nov 6, 2013 23:53 |
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Lexicon posted:Not that I'm aware of, fellow colonial. Why not start one? Hehe, I will continue to read you guys and learn and then maybe, when I can hold my own, I will do just that Some interesting parallels between our countries. Our real estate is looking quite bubbly too, and while our Reserve Bank claims there is no fuss many Australians are finding it very hard to buy their first house. Interest rates are at all time lows and apparently lending standards have begun to slacken. An argument is it's just a supply issue, because so much of our country is wasteland the housing in the prime coastal cities has become expensive, coupled with our poor public transport meaning living further out sucks. But, if it's then a supply/demand issue, why would you buy when there is restricted supply? Surely supply will increase with time, because the market demands it and that would result in prices coming down, even if the bubble never bursts (which is could if the Reserve Bank finally cranks the interest rates and many young Australians already leveraged to the hilt can't afford their mortgages). Still forming my opinions, but they're currently in the ballpark of gently caress that noise and index fund invest until things aren't so silly and then perhaps buy something. Or just have a holiday home in Australia further out where land costs nothing and have a more city based existence in Europe (I'm a dual citizen). Hrm.. isn't it interesting being grown-up
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 00:10 |
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Tony Montana posted:But, if it's then a supply/demand issue, why would you buy when there is restricted supply? Surely supply will increase with time, because the market demands it and that would result in prices coming down, even if the bubble never bursts Real estate supply isn't that elastic. Eventually, and especially if your premise that desireable city space is limited, you just run out of room. Or you build skyscrappers, but those have a pretty long lead times, especially if you're building in an existing city.
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 00:20 |
I did some quick googling using similar terms that I used before I decided on Questrade. It looks like canstar.com.au is your go-to guide for picking a discount brokerage. But I'm not Australian so they may be some kind of laughably evil company/organization or something. And here's an article that looks like a more well-spoken Canadian Couch Potato for Australians. It looks like you guys have lower MERs than us so that's cool!
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 00:27 |
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tuyop posted:It looks like you guys have lower MERs than us so that's cool! It wouldn't be hard - virtually the whole planet has lower MERs than us. Canadians: We'll Buy It, No Matter the Price™.
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 00:31 |
Oh, and your tax-sheltered options seem limited to Superannuation and some kind of weird home buyer's savings tax rebate thing. No TFSA for you guys, sorry!
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 00:43 |
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FrozenVent posted:Real estate supply isn't that elastic. Eventually, and especially if your premise that desireable city space is limited, you just run out of room. But over time, surely. You're suggesting that supply will always be restricted in Australia? Why? It's not like there isn't enough land/room (that's actually almost a joke). Australia is a first-world economy, so there is the building know-how and investor capital to fund development projects. The population is growing rapidly so the demand increase is not a spike. Why wouldn't some enterprising Australians just build a ton more housing eventually making the more expensive prime real estate less so because you just don't have to live there anymore? Alternately the demand will always outstrip the supply, in which case I should look at property development tuyop posted:I did some quick googling using similar terms that I used before I decided on Questrade. It looks like canstar.com.au is your go-to guide for picking a discount brokerage. But I'm not Australian so they may be some kind of laughably evil company/organization or something. Thanks mate I'm still poking around but that helps. Yep that article on the ASX is one of lots of good information there, there is a free online course about ETFs as well. It's just the basics but if someone has no idea and just getting started (me) it's a good place to get grounded. I think the article is well spoken because it's the ASX (bloody well should be or it would be a bit embarrassing, wouldn't it) He may be sitting on the couch next to you with his shoes off, but that guy is still a fund manager (geez, actually what an interesting guy). Great place to start for Aussies, thanks! tuyop posted:Oh, and your tax-sheltered options seem limited to Superannuation and some kind of weird home buyer's savings tax rebate thing. No TFSA for you guys, sorry! Now this is the part I'm getting up to in my research. I was trying to find the 401k equivalent, which would be our superannuation, but how it exactly works and if I can then buy equities with it.. what the liquidity of the super account is.. how it's sheltered from tax.. are all questions I still have. You have a magical bank account that although you have a heavy restriction on how much you can deposit into it, once it's there it's totally tax free! Holy balls, Batman! You can then buy equities, if these equities perform the returns go back into your TFSA? Does that get counted in your contribution limit? Anyways, there must be something smart that Australian investors do with their funds rather than having it in cash. Still working out what that is..
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 09:11 |
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You said yourself that desirable land -that is, close to the cities on the coast- is limited. There's your absolute limit. As for building, it depends on the actual market and prices. If the banks tighten the screws, there's that much less building happening. Alternatively, if all that's being built is McMansions, because that's where the profit margins are, other segments of the market (say multi-family dwellings and low cost apartments) get neglected. Lead time on a house is about what, a year? So it's not like underwear where you can just order another truckload from Indonesia or whatever; by the time those houses come on the market it might already have crashed.
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 12:56 |
Tony Montana posted:Now this is the part I'm getting up to in my research. I was trying to find the 401k equivalent, which would be our superannuation, but how it exactly works and if I can then buy equities with it.. what the liquidity of the super account is.. how it's sheltered from tax.. are all questions I still have. You have a magical bank account that although you have a heavy restriction on how much you can deposit into it, once it's there it's totally tax free! Holy balls, Batman! You can then buy equities, if these equities perform the returns go back into your TFSA? Does that get counted in your contribution limit? Yeah, the TFSA is pretty incredible. Its only problem is that it's just not that much money. 5500/year doesn't go very far. But you have the way it works kind of right. The only thing that counts towards your contribution limit is your principal, all investment returns are tax-free and yours.
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 13:48 |
Here's a general TFSA question: let's say I've maxxed it out and thrown $25,500 in there. I have a good year and end with a 5% return so my TFSA is now at $26,775, but then something happens and I have to withdraw it all. Once January 1 rolls around, is my contribution limit $25,500 + $5,500 or $26,775 + $5,500?
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 16:11 |
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reflex posted:Here's a general TFSA question: let's say I've maxxed it out and thrown $25,500 in there. I have a good year and end with a 5% return so my TFSA is now at $26,775, but then something happens and I have to withdraw it all. Once January 1 rolls around, is my contribution limit $25,500 + $5,500 or $26,775 + $5,500? The latter. Your withdrawal amount in year N gets added to your contribution limit for year N + 1.
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 16:13 |
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FrozenVent posted:You said yourself that desirable land -that is, close to the cities on the coast- is limited. There's your absolute limit. Bear with me, this is important to me because I could be investing in property like everyone tells me to rather than index investing. It's something I'm trying to work through the logic of. Those cities on the coast aren't exactly crowded between mountain ranges or anything, something like Adelaide there is really no limit to how far the sprawl could just continue to spread out. If the RBA increases interest rates, it would make debt more expensive and have a dampening effect on capital intensive projects such as property development. People that can barely afford mortgages now may be forced to sell as they can't afford the repayments and the supply issue would only be worse. However, leaving interest rates on the floor (where they are in Australia, lowest it's been in 50 years or something like that) means inflation. Already I'm amazed here in Italy I pay 1.20 Euro for a cup of coffee, while in Australia they will literally not blink at you and say 4.50 for a cappuccino. The Canadian dollar and AUD are basically parity, so we're talking about the same money here. That's in Adelaide, if you go to Perth where the mining boom has really done it's thing it's actually the thing of legend the pricing there. 10 bucks for a beer. 25 dollars for a chicken schnitzel and chips, and I'm taking basic pub fare nothing fancy. So based on that, from my own experience, Australia is already facing inflation as the mining people have made buckets and real estate owners have made buckets in the recent boom. This would all point to the RBA at some point in the not to distant future putting the brakes on this and increasing interest rates above the 2.5% they are now. What effect would this have on the property market? As I said, if people can't afford their mortgages because housing is already so expensive and they're borrowing more the 90%.. maybe we have a US situation where the market crashes. That would be the time to buy some property, not now. However, as has been postulated by some analysts, Australians generally don't have the other debt levels like in the US (credit card debit for instance) and our unemployment is healthier. This could mean Aussies 'weather the storm' of the rate increase and due to the slow down on infrastructure and housing projects because money is more expensive, the property market continues in it's almost 10% p.a. climb into the clouds and beyond. If it is the latter, I should probably buy some small one bedroom and rent the thing out, as well as invest a segment into index funds. I just don't like the lack of liquidity (illiquidity? whoa) with a property - plus the ongoing expenses which include time dealing with tenants and bullshit or eating a portion of the return paying a property manager to do it. That said, in Melbourne the median house pricing rose 25% in 2010 (holy poo poo) which would offset this annoyance.. but that kind of return cannot be sustainable. The RBA recently released a statement saying 'people need to expect reasonable returns from property investment going forward', pretty much stating the the party is over and if you're thinking of buying property as an investment vehicle you need to consider your cash flow properly. Jump in now because Australia will never pop like the US did? Or half a million dollars for anything you could call a 'house' is ridiculous and overvalued and it just can't continue? This is the biggest question on my investing mind right now. tuyop posted:Yeah, the TFSA is pretty incredible. Its only problem is that it's just not that much money. 5500/year doesn't go very far. But you have the way it works kind of right. The only thing that counts towards your contribution limit is your principal, all investment returns are tax-free and yours. Ah, you have to be at least 18 years old to have one, I just looked up. I was thinking, as if you don't all open them for your children and pump in the 5 and a half k a year, every year.. so once they can take over they're already playing with a decent portfolio? So from 18 to 48 if you do it every year that's .. 165 grand. No it's not that much money and you can see how the investment returns need to come back into the account otherwise you're not going to have enough to retire on.
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 16:56 |
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Lexicon posted:The latter. Your withdrawal amount in year N gets added to your contribution limit for year N + 1. I want to move some of my TFSA cash (it's literally in cash) out of TD into a bespoke broker I have a TFSA account with - the broker gave me some forms to give to TD to handle the transfer. But why wouldn't I just move cash out of my TD TFSA account into my TD Chequing account, and then since my chequing account is attached to my broker's account, just transfer it immediately through there. Would I technically have to wait until 2014 to move the money into the new TFSA if I withdraw in 2013?
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 17:14 |
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Tony Montana posted:Ah, you have to be at least 18 years old to have one, I just looked up. I was thinking, as if you don't all open them for your children and pump in the 5 and a half k a year, every year.. so once they can take over they're already playing with a decent portfolio? So from 18 to 48 if you do it every year that's .. 165 grand. No it's not that much money and you can see how the investment returns need to come back into the account otherwise you're not going to have enough to retire on. Well, let's be honest - the government is not interested in allowing you to shelter all of your investments completely tax free. The TFSA is the primary vehicle that Canadians should be attempting to max out on a yearly basis, but it is only part of an overall retirement strategy. Unsheltered investments (where it makes sense, like Canadian dividend paying equity, for example), and the RRSP are both necessary as well. Another thing to keep in mind, if you are married, is you get access to your spouses contribution space, if they are not using it and are willing to let you. My wife has a proper pension plan, for example, and I don't, but, I have buckets of cash I need to stash somewhere. Her unused TFSA space is perfect for that. That gives me 51,000 in space and more than double the 165 you came up with long term. I'd rather have ~$320k in a TFSA than $500k in an RRSP, anytime. The TFSA is worth more. Having said that, the statistics about how TFSAs are actually used in Canada are dismal. Half of the people that have opened a TFSA have no money in it, and of the other half, 80% of them use them quite literally as a savings account, earning 1% or less in interest. Hey look it's one of those people VVVVVVVV Congrats on getting serious : ) mik posted:I want to move some of my TFSA cash (it's literally in cash) out of TD into a bespoke broker I have a TFSA account with - the broker gave me some forms to give to TD to handle the transfer. But why wouldn't I just move cash out of my TD TFSA account into my TD Chequing account, and then since my chequing account is attached to my broker's account, just transfer it immediately through there. Would I technically have to wait until 2014 to move the money into the new TFSA if I withdraw in 2013? Yes you would need to wait until Jan 1 2014. Saltin fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Nov 7, 2013 |
# ? Nov 7, 2013 17:15 |
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mik posted:Would I technically have to wait until 2014 to move the money into the new TFSA if I withdraw in 2013? Yup, and you'll be potentially fined quite heavily if you fail to wait until the new year ticks over. That's why the transfer forms exist.
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 17:19 |
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Saltin posted:Having said that, the statistics about how TFSAs are actually used in Canada are dismal. Half of the people that have opened a TFSA have no money in it, and of the other half, 80% of them use them quite literally as a savings account, earning 1% or less in interest. Yeah, it's pretty bad. You can lead a horse to water, and all that...
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 17:21 |
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Hah, yes. I am the 80%. Ironically I co-own a equity trading business we trade millions of shares a day, but my own personal investments are... weak. I'm 3/4 cash and have obviously missed out on the rally in the last year and a half. So, I'm in the middle of sorting my poo poo out for both long-term (retirement) and short-term (buy a house) goals. I don't want to sound spoiled, but I'm not really worried about retirement as I can pretty much bank on a rather large inheritance. So my immediate goals are saving for a down-payment on a house, I know equities are not recommended for this generally, but I want to take a little more risk than and increase my exposure to mostly large-cap stocks through ETFs and a couple funds. Basically, I'm thinking of setting up an allocation of 40% FI, 40% Equities, 20% cash/equivalents. With exposures 20/40/40 International/US/Canada. Specific instruments to be determined, but I'm going to use Questrade for Equities/ETFs, my MD account for Funds, and keep my cash at TD. I've been maxing out my TFSA and RRSP room with a fair amount of non-sheltered cash left over, and I'm getting married next year so I will be able to take advantage of my wife's unused room as well. mik fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Nov 7, 2013 |
# ? Nov 7, 2013 17:31 |
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Thanks for the advice earlier everyone. I've decided to opt out of my works group RSP, dump only as much as they will match into and outside RSP and buy into the EOP with that and then put the rest in a TFSA. If this is my first time going in on a TFSA, am I allowed to contribute the total from all years I've been eligible for a TFSA or does just the previous year rollover into this year?
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 19:24 |
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DariusLikewise posted:Thanks for the advice earlier everyone. I've decided to opt out of my works group RSP, dump only as much as they will match into and outside RSP and buy into the EOP with that and then put the rest in a TFSA. If this is my first time going in on a TFSA, am I allowed to contribute the total from all years I've been eligible for a TFSA or does just the previous year rollover into this year? All years. As long as you were resident in Canada and 18 years old in 2009, you have 25,500 of contribution room.
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# ? Nov 7, 2013 19:34 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 18:28 |
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Saltin posted:Having said that, the statistics about how TFSAs are actually used in Canada are dismal. Half of the people that have opened a TFSA have no money in it, and of the other half, 80% of them use them quite literally as a savings account, earning 1% or less in interest. Also, trying to open up that RBC Direct account. I hate how you have to jump through the hoops even though I have several RBC accounts already, just at a sister RBC divisions. Credit checks, and all that poo poo. Gah. slidebite fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Nov 7, 2013 |
# ? Nov 7, 2013 21:14 |